My cat needs your help

Factual Questions
1

Mods, I apologize in advance if this is more of a IMHO thing.

Dopers, I need your help. I have two cats, one is pretty much the perfect cat…the other has an interesting problem. He seems to be completely clueless about the litter box. Oh, he uses it fine, but he can’t seem to get the idea of covering up once he is done. He tries to cover it, but he scratches on everything except the litter. He scratches the side of the box, the door behind the box, the floor, the dryer, and anything else within reach, but he never hits the litter. My wife or I wind up covering it eventually, he will sit there and scratch for a half hour if we don’t do it for him. The other cat tried to show him how to do it and for a while would cover it for him, but I guess he got tired of it and he quit after a few weeks.

Maybe a little background would help. Gypsy, the interesting cat, is a stray we adopted about ten months ago. He is a neutered male tuxedo about two years old. One Friday night around midnight, I was standing on my back porch smoking when I heard this pitiful yowl from a couple of houses down the street. Being lubricated by a little alcohol that night, I yowled back. Seconds later another yowl came, but this one was closer. We played Marco Polo for a few minutes until he popped up under the fence, made a beeline for me, and started rubbing fiercely on my legs while purring and meowing loudly. He was skin and bones so I got some cat food and put it down for him. He wolfed it down and begged for more so I filled the bowl again and while he was eating, I got my wife to ask what we should do with him. We decided that if he stayed the weekend, we would take him to the vet on Monday to be checked out and if he had no dangerous diseases we would keep him. He pawed at the door and tried to come inside at every opportunity…I don’t think he left the yard all weekend. The vet gave him a clean bill of health and we introduced him to our other cat. They made friends in days and are damn near inseparable now.

He is a very affectionate, loving cat. He seems so glad to have a home. The only problem is his litter box issues, not that it is a deal breaker for us. I will keep covering up for him if I must, but I am hoping you may have some suggestions for me on how to help him overcome this problem. I should also say that when he uses the box, he still does something wierd…he perches on the side of the box with only one foot (or sometimes no feet) in the box itself. He only does this when he defecates, he urinates normally (except for the covering).

So guys, any ideas?

2

Can’t offer any help, except to say your cat isn’t unique. We have two, sisters from the exact same litter, and one of them behaves exactly as you describe while the other one is normal.

Tell me, is your Gypsy able to dig in the litter properly BEFORE defecation? Our weirdo does – happily digs a hole all the way to the bottom of the litter box. But afterwards…as you say, it’s then scratch-scratch-scratch on the plastic walls of the litter box for up to 15 minutes, with occasional pauses to sniff and see if it’s ‘covered’ yet. <sigh>

My guess is that the cat has something like a phobia against ‘dirt’ – it knows it has just crapped on that litter and it REFUSES to let its paws touch the filthy stuff now. <<sigh>> We sometimes wonder what this cat would do if transported to the center of the Sahara desert: How would it manage to keep its paws from touching the sand ‘afterwards’?

Anyway, I await any solutions with bated breathe.

3

It sounds like you have a couple of wonderful cats–congratulations! You are very fortunate.

Your cat must learn this feline wisdom: Digging is fun! Here is something to try. Set up an outdoor sandbox or mulch pile, and play with the cat there. Drag a stick or a mouse-on-a-rope through the mulch or sand. Let him pounce on the thing in the mulch; reward him with petting and praise. (You might have to scoop away poop every so often.)

This might help him feel comfortable getting his paws dirty. Or not. You might have to continue covering it up for him. Maybe his buddy will help him out a little. Who knows? Cats are funny.

4

Eh. My cats do that, too. I’ve never thought it was a big deal. The only time it bothers me is when my female cat will do it for ages in the litter box in the bedroom (she doesn’t like shring a box, so we had to get a 2nd one) while we’re sleeping.

Hey, at least he makes it into the box.

5

At least, that’s the theory I have about Shcrodinger the InvisiCat, who has this exact same problem. Can’t quite grok the idea that to cover up his shit, he actually has to scratch litter over it…

Conan the Wonderkitty actually had to teach Schro how to use the pet door.

Anyhoo, I have arrived at the conclusion that if a pet is large, black, or mostly black, affectionate and doesn’t have the brains God gave a box of Quaker Oats, it’s a Labrador Retriever. (You didn’t say how big Gypsy is, but Schrodinger weighs over fourteen pounds, and is most decidedly not overweight.

6

Thanks for the replies, guys. Sorry I haven’t gotten back to the thread earlier, but I got caught in the software swap and just now got to sign back on.

StarvingButStrong

It’s nice to know he isn’t the only cat that does this. He will dig in the litter before he uses it, and he will walk all around in it while he scratches on, well, everything else. He seems to be frustrated that he can’t cover up his droppings. He will scratch for a while, look in the box, scratch for a while, check the box, and so on until we cover it for him. Sometimes, he will keep scratching for a few minutes after we have cover it for him. I think he just wants to take the credit for it.

Does your cat perch on the side like Gypsy does? I have never heard of a cat doing that until we got him.

Mariemarie

Yeah, we are very lucky to have a couple of wonderful cats. I was plesantly suprised that they took to each other as well as they did. There was a couple of days of the resident cat Little Man (misleading name - he’s huge) hissing and avoiding him, but it passed quickly. We really bungled the introduction, so I’m glad it worked out. They are both neutered males about the same age, so I guess that helped.

The outdoor sandbox play is not an option, unfortunately, as they are strictly indoor cats. Maybe I could rig something up inside to try it, but I’m worried about confusing him with multiple boxes. Little Man did cover up for him for a while, but he quit after a few weeks.

AnimistDragon

Nah, it’s not that big a deal, but if we could get him to do it right it would be wonderful. Luckily, they don’t mind sharing a box, but Little Man will give the nastiest look when he has to follow Gypsy in the box. You should see the struggle to use the box first when we change the litter.

Thea Logica

Good theory, Gypsy is large, mostly black, very affectionate, and not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Just eyeballing him, he is about eighteen inches from top of his shoulders to the base of his tail and stands about twelve inches from paw to top of shoulders. He weighed almost fifteen pounds at the last vet visit a couple of months ago. He was a little more than eight pounds when we got him…you could count his ribs just by looking at them.

7

I had a cat like that and got a covered litter box; was afraid he might fail to use it altogether since he could not perch on the edge, but he does use it and the litter he flings around during his scratching on the edge of the box & so on at least stays inside the box, and then he can only scratch on the box & not the wall. So you might give it a try. At least I no longer have to look at the stuff he deposits…

8

I would get a second litter box. You say they don’t mind sharing but in the same breath you speak of “nasty looks” and “struggles”.

Maybe he doesn’t want to touch the litter because the other cat has used it, even if they are “friends”.

9

kayT

Good idea, I may try that. The only problem is finding one large enough as he is very tall. I considered getting one of the automatic litter boxes, but I was afraid it would scare him if it started while he was standing next to it.

Eleusis

Well, only Little Man gives “the look” when he has to follow Gyspy in the box. Gyspy seems happy to poo on top of anything he left before if we don’t get it before he has to go again. Little Man will go in any spot he can find if Gypsy left a “present” for us. The “struggle” is mainly Little Man wanting to use the new litter before Gypsy can get to it. I don’t know if this is a sanitary issue or just a dominance thing…Little Man insists on being fed first and being the first to greet the humans when we get home.

Thanks again for the replies. You have given me some good advice to think about.

10

Same exact situation here. I have an older cat about 2 years who is perfect in every way. We got a young kitten 5 months ago and he’s normal except for the digging in the litter problem. He very often winds up covering his droppings during the process, but he digs at everything. We use a plastic liner and he always manages to tear it up which makes for some interesting litter changing fun. I always figured it had something to do with the smell. He can’t seem to cover the smell completely so he keeps digging.

11

Funny, i just started a new thread with this same problem… Thought i was alone… How about we start a group… “Litter box anonymous” or something…

12

I would just chime in also that my cat acts the same way as the OP and always has. It’s just now that she’s getting very old and weak that sometimes she just dispenses with using the litter box all together.

There’s a lot of newspaper in my house.

13

Have you tried actually taking his paw and helping him cover the litter himself? Catch him before he scratches and scratches and scratches if you can, and show him how to do it. Sometimes, if they didn’t learn how to do this properly as kittens, the “hand-on” approach will help them.

14

Oh, yes, indeed. What is worse is that sometimes the cat seems to forget the entire point of the operation and ends up with her rump jutting out past the box area. :frowning:

15

My newest (10 months, male, neutered) covers just fine, but he then scratches at the litter for 10 to 15 minutes at a stretch. He seems to not like it in the corners, and will move from corner to corner scratching happily away (perched on the sides). This would be fine, but he moves the litter from one corner and into another corner which then must be cleaned out forming a never ending cycle. My other cat (9 years, female, spayed) will watch him and wait for the box to be empty so she can go. She goes, covers and is done with it.

He also ‘cleans’ (by scratching) the sheets on the bed before laying down with us at night and the floor near their food bowls. It’s very charming.

He hates it if we leave the box uncleaned for more than two days (we’ll have to get an extra box if we plan on being out of town for any extended period.)